Winter 2012 Anime Season Preview

Ya’ll ready for another round of Senjogahara Fascination?

Welcome to the world famous (not really) Cart Driver Season Preview. I usually kick off these posts with some sort of satirical mocking of the ‘everything sucks’ crowd, but since I shall be making a similar statement throughout the course of this post, it would perhaps be a touch hypocritical. So buckle in for this 6000 word long no wait come back you don’t have to read it all in one go!

Nisemonogatari

You almost forget that, before the massive success of Madoka Magica, Shaft had another anime that embarrassed everyone else in sales. Now that Shaft have a considerable amount of dough in their vaults, they can finally focus on one project at a time instead of producing 2 anime every single bloody season. What also helps is that Bakemonogatari is, you know, actually very good. So hurrah for a sequel then? Well…hmm…you see, Shaft sequels, from Arakawa to Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei to Natsu no Arashi, have done nothing more than stagnate their respective franchises. Then there’s the fact Nisemonogatari’s story is based off Arararararagi’s sisters, who I felt only worked in the original because they were kept out the main story. They acted as a tool at the end of each arc to wake Arararararagi out of his ideal world where all the girls fell in love with him. Making them the main focus ruins that effect. Also from that trailer, I’m not sure how I feel about Senjogahara with short hair. That said, it is still Senjogahara, and there’s a guaranteed level of quality that comes with her brilliance. Ultimately I’m just being cautious, because Shaft sequels have burned me in the past, but this is still my most anticipated anime of the season.

Recorder and Backpack

A 4-koma adaptation eh? I’ve never really liked 4-koma adaptation myself, being barrages of repetitive jokes broken up by the occasional segment of girls being cute with no sense of narrative structure. But can Recorder and Backback break this trend? Firstly, does it have more than one joke? The premise is about a 12 year old boy who looks much older, and a high school girl who looks much younger. That’s a full two jokes! OK, good start. Is it more than just cute girls doing cute things? Yes, only half of the series is a cute girl doing cute things. The rest is big man doing cute things. OK, things are looking good, what else is there? Is it capable of breaking out of the 4-koma format and constructing a narrative? Hard to tell without actually watching the anime in question. The studio and staff aren’t much help either. The animation studio is called Seven, who have only previously made that dull 5-minute per episode skit Morita-san. The director has worked on quite a variety on different anime, from Haibane Remnei to Dance in the Vampire Bund, but he’s never directed something by himself, so not much help looking at his past portfolio. Honestly, not expecting much from this, and I doubt anyone else is, but sometimes these kinds of series can surprise if the creators really go crazy with their concept.

Daily Lives of Highschool Boys

Seriously? This is a thing now? Cute boys doing cute things? Turns out Kimi to Boku was not just an unusual once off . Except it’s not really. It’s the exact same thing as cute girls doing cute things, except the target audience has changed. You know, I could respect fans of these types of anime if it was the relaxing nature of ordinary life that they enjoyed. If it was the cuteness of human interactions that they found appealing. It’s not my sort of thing, but I see the appeal. But that’s not it, is it? The only people I’ve seen who are fans of Kimi to Boku are girls and gay men. The K-ON/A-Channel/Lucky Star fans aren’t watching Kimi to Boku because it has cute men instead of cute girls, and vice versa. You’re all a bunch of fucking shallow morons, kept glued to your screens by nothing more than your most primal of instincts. You disgust me, I don’t even know why I—woah woah calm down Scamp calm down, forget to take your medication again, did you? Let’s try to be fairer on this new anime, right? OK fine. There’s actually a legitimate reason to be interested in this too, beyond the cute guys you bunch of vagina driven shallow twats ok that’s enough of that Scamp, calm down there lad …sorry. The director of Gintama and School Rumble is on this, which is pretty darn impressive as far as comedy resumes go. Of course, there’s no cute girls here, so you bunch of fucking halfwit shitfaces ok never mind moving onto the next anime

Black Rock Shooter

Black Rock Shooter was originally nothing more than a Vocaloid song by Supercell with some accompanying artwork drawn by Redjuice Huke. The artwork inspired a crazy fan following, probably due to the fact it looked like a Dark and Edgy re-interpretation of Hatsune Miku. The popularity of it was so great that an OVA of Black Rock Shooter was produced, headed up by GREATEST ANIMATION DIRECTOR EVER YAMAKAN (actually according to ANN it was directed by a different bloke altogether and GREATEST ANIMATION DIRECTOR EVER YAMAKAN was just supervisor). It was 25% mute girls in black string bikinis having beautifully animated fights in a post apocalyptic bathroom, and 75% incredibly dull angtsy moeblob s’life. It didn’t exactly set the world alight, but Black Rock Shooter fans still hoovered it up, prompting the creation of this TV series. This time there’s no GREATEST ANIMATION DIRECTOR EVER YAMAKAN on board, but they instead decided to hire the rest of the key staff who worked together on SAVIOUR OF ANIME FRACTALE, including Mari Okada, the scriptwriter. Heck, even the director of this new incarnation of Black Rock Shooter was the same guy who directed the OVA. It does have Imaishi, the Gurren Lagann mastermind, doing the fight sequences. Which is cool and all, seeing his influence in the trailer, but it wasn’t the fight sequences that was the problem with the OVA. It was absolutely everything else.

Ultimately though, Satoshi Kon could rise from the dead to direct Black Rock Shooter and I’d still be inherently biased against it because it’s in Noitamina. Noitamina used to be a stronghold of anime that specifically weren’t aimed at the stereotypical early 20’s otaku male. But with Fractale, Ano Hana and Guilty Crown, the amount of anime in which a high school male lead has magical girl enter his life has been gradually on the uptake in that timeslot (for comparison, not a single Noitamina anime prior to Fractale had a high school male lead). Black Rock Shooter is the last straw. Everything the Noitamina timeslot had previously stood for is dead. Fuck this show.

Natsume Yuujinchou Shi

While I’ve been harsh on Natsume in the past, I suddenly find myself feeling charitable towards it. In a season as barren as this one looks like it will be, it’s nice to have something as reliably solid as Natsume poking around. Besides, the only reason I’m harsh on it in the first place is victim of circumstance. Because Brains Base are making Yet Another Bloody Natsume, that means they aren’t making sequels to all their other anime that need it more, most notably Durarara. Well OK, Natsume could be a better series. The characters, apart from Nyanko, are all rather dull, and Natsume himself still has this irritating tendency to break away from conversations to talk about the weather. But, behind all that, it still has an incredibly good sense of how to tell a story. So long as it doesn’t retread points it already finished up in previous seasons, then I’m more than happy to have Yet Another Bloody Natsume.

New Prince of Tennis

Once upon a time there was an anime called Saint Seiya (bear with me, I’m going somewhere with this). Despite being a shounen anime aimed at teenage boys, Saint Seiya proved to be a massive hit with girls due to its cast of beautiful angsty men dressed up in skin tight leather plugsuits. It was then that anime producers realised that there was a female audience for shounen material. I’m sure Prince of Tennis wasn’t the first of these, but it’s certainly the most infamous. A shounen with absolutely no intentions of appealing to men and focusing its aim squarely at squealing fangirls.

I’ve had two experiences with this franchise in the past. My sister bought the first volume of the manga once, as a blind buy, and I can unequivocally say that it’s the worst manga we have in our rather large collection. Page after page of emotionless drivel as the main character has tennis matches while scores of bishies proclaim aloud how is this kid so good, with an added female character who serves no purpose for the (admittedly non-existent) narrative and is probably only there to give female fans a character to project into. My other experience was with the movie, which I’ll admit I only watched for terribad material. Suffice to say, with scenes like the above dinosaur apocalypse, it was several times more entertaining than that first volume of manga. Oh right, this new season? I think it’s a sequel. Whatever man, you guys don’t seriously watch Prince of Tennis, do you?

Rinne no Lagrange

Did you know that, once upon a time, Xebec had ambition? Yeah I know, shocking isn’t it? Nowadays they are more well known for anime like To-Love-Ru and Ladies vs Butlers, but apparently producing Rio Rainbow Gate led the staff there to realise how low they had truly sunk and decided to actually try produce something of worth. So here we are, Rinne no Langrange. An anime original production with an admittedly quite interesting team behind it. Director Tatsuo Sato is most well known for Nadesico he made waaaay back in the day, as well as some other early 00’s series like Stellvia and Shingu. Thing is none of these series are…umm, particularly great. His proof of quality, Nadesico, is a full 16 years old by this stage. Plus he’s also directing Mini Skirt Space Pirates this season, so maybe his attention will be divided. That is, if you expect him to be actually expressing much creative control over this. He’s listed as ‘chief director’ with actual normal director being the guy who directed Heroic Age. Haven’t seen Heroic Age myself, and reviews have been kinda mixed (I believe it was the last time Xebec went all out and tried something ambitious). But since then he’s worked on some interesting stuff, most of which being Good Shaft Anime like Bakemonogatari and Arakawa. The script guy is top drawer too, working on everything from FMA: Brotherhood to Eden of the East to Darker than Black to Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. If anything, the most off-putting part of this anime is the trailer. Why the pantyshots? Why does this feel like it’s inspired by Strike Witches? Why oh why the lack of noses on some of the characters? Are noses not considered moe or something?

Zero no Tsukaima Final

The fact that I can use the phrase “The original Shakugan no Shana clone” without irony goes to show how deep this problem runs. I’ll admit straight up here that I haven’t any of seen Zero no Tsukaima yet, but I’m going to hazard a guess at what it’s about. High school male lead with no distinguishing characteristics beyond the fact he’s kinda nice has tsundere girl with small breasts fall into his life and the male character gains some sort of special power because of this, that doesn’t, funnily enough, result in him gaining any more personality. Am I right? Actually no, from what I’ve heard, the main character here is a massive perv rather than being just kinda nice. Fucking swimming in originality here guys!

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2

I wonder why I cover sequels in season previews? There isn’t really any point. If you have seen the first season, you know what to expect from the second and don’t need me explaining what the deal is. If you haven’t seen the first season, there’s no point in reading previews because you will need to have seen the first season for context. I haven’t seen this anyway, so I don’t have anything to say, beyond perhaps marvelling that JC Staff are making an anime that isn’t a Shana clone!

Amagami SS+

I wonder why I cover sequels in season previews? There isn’t really any point. If you have seen the first season, you know what to expect from the second and don’t need me explaining…well this is eerily familiar. Besides, there is a point in explaining what the deal is here with this new season of Amagami, because the last season followed the unusual format of completely new timelines for each girl the main character chased. Copypasting from ANN “it will be an omnibus in which each heroine gets two episodes devoted to her. However, [the new season] will include more original story elements set after the events of the first season.” So there you go. No interest myself, I bailed after the first episode of last season, but good for all you guys who like this show. I at least appreciate the unique format this series attempted.

Mini Skirt Space Pirates

The other anime Tatsuo Sato is working on this season, apart from Rinne no Langrange. The actual name is Moeretsu Pirates (which ANN is nice enough to inform me translates roughly to Bodacious Pirates), but the story is based on/inspired by the novel ‘Mini Skirt Space Pirates’, and that name is just so much cooler. This is the anime Sato is much more focused on rather than Langrange, where his job appears to be run into the office, yell at everyone for 5 minutes, then leave again. He’s full proper director on this one, as well as series composition. This series has been in production for a bloody long time too. Satelight announced they were animating this a full 4 years ago or something. I’m not sure whether this delay means they had extra time to iron out a perfect script, or if it’s because of disagreements that resulted in a botched production. There’s an almost old-school feel to this series, probably helped by the fact the original novels were written by one the guys who worked on Dirty Pair. It’s that kind of goofy anime space opera where you’d have to be a jaded cynic not to find the concept charming.

Taking a step back and looking at this season overall, the swing between memorable to barren really relies on whether Sato still has it. He has directed an anime more recently though, which I didn’t mention until now because it’s very different from his other space-themed series. He directed the 2008 anime Shigofumi. It was a bit full of itself and a touch pretentious, but it was otherwise a really well directed anime. If Mini Skirt Space Pirates and Rinne no Langrange can deliver, any talk of this season being lacklustre will be gone.

Dog X Me SS

Based off a manga called (for those weaboos out there) Inu X Boku SS. So, as I always do, I checked out the first scanlated chapter of the manga. For some reason, I was under the impressions with would be a fanservicy comedy, as it runs in a shounen magazine. Which it is, but I mistook which fanservicey side it would be aiming at. The Dog in the title is the man, a butler who bows to his masters every whim, a generic female lead with some self-confidence issues. Yup, it’s shojo time! Reverse harem shojo time at that, as this girl has a variety of pretty boys protecting her. They’re all magical spirits or something. It is by David Production, that spin-off Gonzo studio who have done stuff like Ben-To and Level E, whom many people seem to like, but I’ve never really been able to get behind any of their works.

Listen to Me, Girls

I Am Your Father!

I remember when this anime was announced. It was at the time when Bunny Drop was airing. The synopsis was about a college student who has to raise his sisters’ children after she went missing on a downed plane. Sounds fairly similar to Bunny Drop, so maybe this too will be about the strong connections of family and the trials, difficulties but ultimately rewards of parenting. At least, that’s what I thought, until I saw the artwork. And I saw that the light novel was written by the same author who wrote Mayoi Neko Overrun, who also wrote for a few episodes of the Queens Blade anime. And my heart sunk. It’s the token pedobait anime of the season! They show up every 6 months or so. I mean, I’d like to believe that this anime won’t have a scene in which the main character walks in on his niece changing where upon she calls him a pervert and blushes profusely, but I’m not holding out hope.

BRAVE10

The bad: The synopsis includes the phrase “in Japan’s tumultuous Sengoku Era”, a line so tired and dull that Sea Slugs season previews have taken to ignoring the existence of any anime set in that time period. The good: The trailer indicates that this will be far from an accurate portrayal of said era. The only time I ever enjoy these kinds of anime is where they aren’t as dry as that one place in Chile where it hasn’t rained for a bajillion years. Stuff like Samurai Champloo. The bad: It’s fujoshi bait. I swear I saw half these characters in Hakuouki. What’s the bet that the person with the white hair in the promo pic is just an incredibly girly man? The ANN page for the manga has this hilarious picture of a man swinging a sword while proudly baring his smexy toned midriff. The director’s main previous work was the Vampire Knight series. The good: It would be rather hypocritical of me to dismiss an anime due to its sexual appeal not being to my own, especially after that rant earlier in this post. Besides, as I’ve said before, I often fare better with fujoshi anime than male otaku bait. The meh: Animation studio is a total newbie to the game. Gut feeling points to be a dull Hakouoki clone, but my gut feeling is normally wrong so it’s probably going to be the next Samurai Champloo or something.

Senhime Zesshou Symphogear

With the earth-shaking success of Hatsune Miku and the wave of popularity AKB48 are enjoying right now, idols are totally in with otaku culture. Symphogear is about two idols fighting of a mysterious bad guy using the powers of their voices, but really this is a platform for two aspiring idols to propel their careers. It’s not like this is the first time this has happened. I’ve done enough of those retro season previews to see this kind of stuff pop up time and time again through the ages. It’s not like this sort of stuff can’t end up good. That’s essentially part of how the Macross franchise was set up, and they work idols into their stories pretty well. But still, Symphogear is…well, total newbie studio, half of the staff members never having worked on anime before, nonsense sounding premise. My terribad antenna is responding.

Another

Oh dear, not Another anime. Do we really need Another anime like this? I would recommend you watch Another anime rather than Rio Rainbow Gate.

Obligatory mucking about with the name out of the way, this is one of the few genuinely interesting anime out this season that isn’t a sequel. A quick check of the manga it’s based off (well, it’s based off a set of novels first, but there’s a manga too) and it’s that classic Japanese type of horror. Where everyone around you acts in slightly off and you get this feeling that you are completely alone. Animation studio is PA Works. Their works are limited to True Tears, Canaan, Angel Beats and Hanasaku Iroha. Asides from Canaan, which was a mess, all their works have been decently entertaining. Horror is new ground for them, so I’ll at least give them credit for experimenting. Director is Tsutomo Mizushima, director of…well, quite a lot of stuff. Hare Guu, XXXHolic, Squid Girl, Dokuro-chan, Big Windup, Genshiken OVA, a whole fuck ton of Shin-chan movies and so on and so forth. He’s better at comedy and, in my humble opinion, has never managed to come anywhere near close to his work on Hare Guu, which is over 10 years old now. What’s the most worrying thing here is his last attempt at directing a horror anime was the near universally reviled horrific mess that was Blood-C. But fuck it, let’s put that aside and be optimistic that he’ll work his…err, magic on yet Another anime. OK I swear I won’t use that wordplay again.

Ano Natsu de Matteru

Over the course of the next month or so, plenty of other anime blogs will be releasing season previews of their own, and they may rank this as one of the more interesting anime of the season. Fair enough, it’s an anime original, which we could always do with more of. But everything about this just rubs me the wrong way. The creator is the same guy who wrote Onegai Teacher. At least, that’s what all the promo material has been proudly declaring. How about mention the fact he wrote the script for anime like Trigun or Honey and Clover or Big Windup or Infinite Ryvius? Why highlight the one massive turd on his resume? Also, it’s an anime original that went for the crazy new idea of being an adolescent romantic comedy. Thrilling stuff. Plus the last anime original that fell roughly into that category was Ano Hana. I know a lot of you like Ano Hana, but if you did you’re probably the kind of person who, if the anime consisted of a blue screen with the words “cry, you easily emotionally manipulated bitch”, would declare it a masterpiece and call people who didn’t cry to have no souls. Then there’s the watercolour promo artwork, which always rubs me the wrong way. Watercolour promo artwork means you might be kinda funny, but you’re really trying to be heartwarming and touching and will tug at your heartstrings and bleargh. I remember Sora no Woto did this, as did SAVIOUR OF ANIME FRACTALE. The cast list was released before who the director would be, always a sure sign that the creators of this have their priorities wrong. And then there’s JC Staff. What’s to bet the guy on the right is an ordinary bloke, maybe kind of nice, who happens to be really good at camerawork, while the girl on the left has some kind of magical power and appears into his life at the start of the story. But wait, instead of being flat chested, she has massive tits! Boy, we are sure swimming in fucking originality here!

Kill Me Baby

Oh hi there JC Staff. What’s this? Another anime that’s not a Shana clone? Are you sure you guys are OK? Woah, it’s a 4-koma adaptation, is it? Trying to recover the respect you guys used to have back when you made Azumanga Daoih? Well, cycle through the 4-koma rules and requirements. Is it more than just cute girls being cute? It was serialised in the same magazine that ran K-ON and A-Channel, so that’s a nope. Does it have more than one joke in its repetoire? The story is about a girl who is a crappy ninja and her partner in crime. So nope, just one joke. Will it break free of the 4-koma format and be able to construct a cohesive narrative? Of course it won’t, because JC Staff are shit. Look, this is just kind of sad. JC Staff have 6 anime running next season. Bakuman and Shana are continuing from last season, along with the new Zero no Tsukaima, Milky Holmes, Ano Natsu and now this. Plus this will be the anime they put the least budget into, which must be pretty fucking embarrassing when you get a smaller budget than Bakuman. Bleh, JC Staff. It’s gotten to the stage where I’m more interested in Xebec’s new anime than yours.

High School DxD

Boobies!

Welp, my work here is done.

No really, what do you want me to say? It’s a light novel adaptation about a pervy guy who gets embroiled in a situation with a large breasted and incredibly pretty magical girl. Along the way he shall meet various females, all of whom want to chomp on his meat and two veg, and there’s no point in watching it as it airs anyway because you’ll have to wait for the BD release to get rid of the censorship. Plus the animation studio doing this are the same guys who did Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka and, as I believe I’ve said many times before, there are few lines in existence more depressing than ‘from the creators of Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka’.

The Knight in the Area

Looking back over this post so far, I’ve made myself rather depressed. Do I even like anime anymore? Of course I bloody do. I’m just bummed out that my most anticipated anime from last season, Guilty Crown, turned into a pile of poo, so I’m scaling back the optimism this season. But let’s be happy and stuff for this new football anime. Sorry, I mean saawwcuurr. It’s based off a popular shonen manga that’s been running for 6 years now. It’s being adapted by Shin-Ei Animation, the guys who make all those ever-lasting series like Doraemon, Oishinbo and Crayon Shin-chan. Not quite sure what that means for this anime, maybe plans to be everlasting too? I checked out the manga and it was pretty good. A bit formulaic and shounen-y and, as psgels points out, does seem to be inspired a touch by Adachi (Cross Game, Touch). Far from a bad thing mind you. If you’re going to copy a sports mangaka, copy Adachi. Director isn’t up to much, even if he did work a bit on Gintama. Then again, these kinds of series tend to bring in new staff for each arc. My biggest worry is that nobody will sub the blasted thing, especially if it isn’t picked up for legal streaming. Anime fandom are a bunch of hopeless nerds who react to the sight of sports like the wicked witch of the west reacts to water, despite the fact they invariably end up enjoying the one sports anime they ever end up watching.

Aquarion EVOL

Let us pretend for a second that there has never been an anime called Aquarion before. What we have here is an original mecha anime by the director of Macross Frontier, team up with some talented writers (and Mari Okada), with animation by Satelight and Yoko Kanno doing the music. Superstar line up if there ever was one. Problem is there has been an anime called Aquarion before. I’ve never seen it, and rather surprisingly never hear anyone talk about it either. Is it one of those early 00 classics like Infinite Ryvius or Wolf’s Rain where people have just sort of stopped talking about it because all that was needed to be said has been said, or does nobody talk about it because it was shit? So I went searching the internet for impressions and opinions and came to the conclusion that yes, Aquarion was shit. Bland, totally forgettable, mess of cliches without a single new idea. Sort of like Guilty Crown then oh ho ho. Good thing is this is a sequel in the same sense that Macross Frontier is a sequel. It’s set 12000 years after events of the original, which I found rather funny. Do you really have to go that far ahead in time to get away from the stink of the first season? Dissappointing perhaps to that one Aquarion fan out there who wanted to see the original characters, but a godsend to the rest of us who wanted to see if this team can produce something worthy of their names.

Movies and OVAs

Obligatory reminder that getting excited for movies coming out in Japan now is pointless as the rest of the world won’t see them until they are released on BD/DVD almost a year later. So all you gamers excited for the Dragon Age movie, all you cool people excited for the new Berserk movie, and all you losers excited for the K-ON movie, will have to wait. Instead, I’m going to highlight the anime movies that are coming out on BD/DVD over the next 3 months. Usual rules apply to OVAs too. No covering of simple DVD specials because there’s nothing more to say. If you really liked the Infinite Stratos anime, then the OVA is a little bit of extra fanservice for you.

Children Who Chase Voices

from Deep Below: 25/11

Definitely the most interesting movie of the lot. Shikai’s movie, coming out 25th November, so it’s probably already out for all you slow munchkins who aren’t subscribed to this blog on google reader yet (and now is the perfect time to learn how!). Speculating on whether it will be any good or not is a bit silly since as I’ve already seen it at a movie festival. It’s Shinkai abandoning his old formula (thank god) and trying to do a Ghibli. The big surprise is he does a rather good job of it, even though his fascination with clouds came along for the ride.

Lupin III: Blood Seal

Eternal Mermaid

Same TV Special episode that I talked about in the last season preview. Coming out 2nd December. No staff list in sight as of yet, although they did hire a bunch of new people for some of the characters voices. Most importantly was hiring a new person to voice Fujiko, because it was getting a bit silly when the voice of what was supposed to be an incredibly sexy lady was voiced by a 70 year old woman. She’s now voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro, probably most famous for voicing Celty in Durarara (a rather amusing person to be known for voicing considering Celty doesn’t exactly have a voice). I guess it’s a good fit, Fujiko is meant to sound sultry and sexy and her voice fits the bill fine. Oh what am I doing? You know I really have nothing to say when I start talking about the voice actors. Look, just watch Castle of Cagliostro if you want to check out the Lupin III franchise. I’ll give you a call if this TV Special turns out to be any good.

Kyousogiga

There’s been some confusion surrounding this because it was listed on those charts that this is a TV Series. It’s not, it’s just a single episode web release thing. . The reason I’m giving it it attention is because the trailer looks awesome. It’s one of those imaginative short animation pieces that studios toss out every now and then. It’s being made by the Toei staff that normally make Precure stuff, except with a Yuasa inspired art style crossed with Summer Wars. No idea what to expect from it, and there’s always the chance it could be another Cencoroll where the trailer shows all the cool bits and the rest is dull, but these kinds of things are always worth checking out.

Ai no Kusabi 2012

Perhaps I should make a separate season preview for hentai one day. I know very little about the subject, but since when has that ever stopped people making season previews oh ho ho. The reason I bring this up is because Ai no Kusabi is a yaoi OVA, which is basically just porn for girls. I probably wouldn’t cover this sort of stuff, except Ai no Kusabi is kind of interesting. It’s a remake of the classic(?) 1992 yaoi OVA by the same name, except this time they’re extending it to 13 episodes long. That’s pretty big scale for a yaoi OVA. Plus the director also did an episode on Legend of Black Heaven, so clearly this will be the greatest yaoi series ever to grace the earth.

Ufotable OVAs

These are the sort of projects animation studios throw up every now and then. There was the Young Animator Training Project that showed up earlier this year, which most people remember for the Oji-san no Lamp segment. There were also those two Sunrise CGI pieces, Koisento and Norageki, which weren’t particularly popular, but I liked them a lot. Now it’s ufotable’s turn, the studio who made Kara no Kyoukai and are currently working on Fate/Zero. First piece is Minori Scramble, the one featured in the trailer, about a girl who is afraid of penguins so her father builds a robot penguin to help her get over her phobia. It’s that kind of batty anime idea that I have a real soft spot for. Second piece is Gyo, which I know nothing about, but that single promo image that exists for it is striking enough to warrant checking out. Third piece is something called Yuri Seijin Naoko-san, which had a 10 minute OVA earlier this year and made hilarious jokes about how great child molestation is (hint: it wasn’t hilarious). There’s not a whole lot of info on them, but apparently the Gyo piece is meant to be an hour long, so hopefully that means the rest of them are that length too. We’ll see though, don’t quote me on that.

Sora no Kiseki

An OVA based off a JRPG. They show up every now and then. There’s also the continuation of the Tales of Symphonia series, another one of those JRPG adaptations. Because it’s just a OVA, they tend to be just for fans only. So I don’t really have anything else to say.

There are some other movies coming out, but they’re franchise movies that don’t hold my interest quite as much. Sengoku Basara is getting a movie, coming out 7 December. Rather more excitingly, Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood is also getting a movie, coming out 8 February. Although from what I’ve heard, it’s just a boring old shounen flick where it has no effect on the personalities of the characters in question. Still, it’s FMA. There’s also the movie In the Forest of Firefly Lights coming out 22 February. This is technically a totally new film, but after watching it at the aformentioned movie festival, it’s basically a franchise movie for Natsume Yuujinchou. There’s also a brand new ToHeart OVA, but there’s always a new ToHeart OVA.

On a final note, ANN says that the new Code Geass Gaiden OVA is supposed to be airing on the 27th January. However that is because ANN are dirty liars. There has been no confirmed date for that eternally delayed OVA. Which is a shame, because I NEED TO KNOW IF HE REALLY IS THE CART DRIVER DAMNIT not really.

99 Comments

oh, and by the way, i suggest you reconsider having nisemonogatari as your most anticipated anime of the season.

nisemonogatari is all about the incestuous relationship that develops with your underage sisters (especially the older one, who basically admits she likes her older brother like that by the end of the novel).

That was lengthy. So just ZnT (while consuming alcohol) and Amagami (while…you get the picture) for me this winter. Lots of spare time for me even if I also pick up the High School show as self-punishment. Anyway, I do like the high concept space pirate show and high concept lolibait just for their audacity even if they end up being terrible.

There’s actually a plot reason that Aquarion Evol is set 12,000 years after Aquarion. The characters in Evol are supposed reincarnations of characters from the first series. At the end of the first series Main Character sacrifices himself to save the world or whatever, and while doing so he tells Love Interest that he will return in 12,000 years.

Main Character and Love Interest are reincarnations of two people who did important things 12,000 years prior to first Aquarion. So Main Character was eluding to the fact that it takes aprox. 12,000 years to be reincarnated.

What I was kinda worried about was why was it Shaft went straight for the second book in the series. Did they consider it the only good one and are only animating the rest now after the popularity of Bakemonogatari? Then again, I’ve never heard anyone say something to confirm to this fear of mine in reviews of the novels, so maybe I’m worrying over nothing

Nisemonogatari is the 3rd book, actually. Now, they did announce adapting the 2nd book, Kizumonogatari, earlier, which will end up coming out after Nisemonogatari.

Having only read Bakemonogatari and most of Kizumonogatari, my guess is that the story in the series of novels build upon each other, so it doesn’t make much sense to adapt ones here & there. The final book is called LoveStory (Koimonogatari) and “Hitagi End,” after all. The Monogatari series isn’t like Haruhi or BakaTest or Durarara series.

I figure it’s best to quote this guy, since he phrased it so effectively:

“Some of that just has to do with the fact that having watched more, I’m pickier. There’s also selective memory and nostalgia goggles. But there’s also moe.

Within every genre, moe (which I like in combination with other things) has crowded out too many other important features. The shows have become vehicles for slickly engineered moe moments rather than the working out of some intense individual, idiosyncratic fantasy.

K-ON! and Gurren Lagann are instances of the same breed, as I see it, with Gurren Lagann just substituting ‘epic’ for ‘moe’. Well, that’s not a recent development — maybe the engineering has just gotten a lot slicker, better, more successful.”

I have to say I’m looking forward to Aquar­ion EVOL. The original was a alright, but it was at it’s best when the show seemed to realize how stupid it was. A good example is the episode “Cosplayer of soul” where they essentially call out each character’s trope. Hopefully Aquar­ion EVOL will at least have these types of episodes.

Nice and lengthy!
The pictures and trailers are helpful, though I keep finding that as soon as I see the picture of at the top I know whether you’ll be optimistic for it or not. Thanks for the hard work

The only things I’m looking forward to are Kyousogiga and Another. Have yet to finish Bakemonogatari.

When I was 13, I was intrigued by Yaoi, even if I actually had no idea about it, and watched the original Ai no Kusabi OVA. It was kinda like doing something forbidden, that was fun. That marked probably the start of me becoming a fujioshi, because I actively looked for it. It was okay, I guess, even if youtube had taken some parts of the OVA down (I was such a newbie, I didn’t even know streaming sites or torrent), maybe kinda boring, so I just watched the part with the nekkid men, which was actually just two images of them, and flowy music (and the white haired guy talked. My english was so poor back then I didn’t really figured it out what he was saying, and it was in such poor quality anyways that you couldn’t quite read the small yellow subs.) As strangely disappointing it was, after quite a while, it was announced that they would be another Ai no Kusabi anime, and I actually didn’t hate anything back then (I was such an optimist) so I was looking forward to it. And here it is, four years later. /sigh It’s interesting to see what has become of me. Maybe I’ll watch the remake anime that was my first porn-experience, even if it was a disappointment, out of nostalgia.

“The only people I’ve seen who are fans of Kimi to Boku are girls and gay men.”
I’m neither a girl nor gay, but I enjoy it too. I think it’s a slow-paced show that doesn’t ignore basic rules of writing, like having one episode revolve mostly around a theme, using symbolism that means something or developing your characters.

“What’s the bet that the per­son with the white hair in the promo pic is just an incred­ibly girly man?”
Which one? :D

Oh here I was confused about Aquarion (I keep thinking about the TCG?? unless the TCG OH I was thinking about Aquarian Age all the time! orz) and with this comment I finally realize what the original was.

Sousei no Aquarion’s OP is the best fucking thing hnngh. I love it so.

According to MAL, the plot for Gyo:
“Something in Okinawa reeks, and it isn’t long before Tadashi and his girlfriend Kaori realize that the smell is coming from dead fish, which are walking out of the sea. The fish are fused to metal legs and are infected with a disease contractable by humans that was invented as a weapon by the Japanese government. After Kaori is infected, Tadashi goes to find a solution to this putrid takeover, if there even is an answer to be found.”

… You’re right. I know why I missed you mentioning Kyouetc: I was using the MAL spelling, and you used a different one. If only there was standardisation! So, what did you think of it? I’ve got it, but am yet to watch it…

fujiwara cocoa! but it’s inu x boku whatever, and i wasn’t really impressed with the manga either. has her signature comedy routines, but the characters are rather forgettable. why couldn’t they animate Dear instead ;(

the manga runs in a shounen magazine because fujiwara cocoa loves her loli-esque moe female characters as much as her bishounen. and includes ample fanservice for both of them in her series XD

Funny, I just saw an extended PV of the High School Boys show, and not only is there a cute girl in it, but also it is ****ing hysterical. I think you may want to look into it, it looks better than the title suggests.

Just an observation but i’m pretty sure about 90% of the anime coming out next season are based in schools. Really looking forward to Nisemonogatarai and i’m hoping that Sen­joga­hara makes an appearance. Another also looks like it could be good.

A few of the other ones could be okay but you can’t really tell until you watch the first episode.

Nisemonogatari, idem!
Watching Bakemonogatari, I thought it would get interesting if the two imouto’s were involved more actively in the plot. I’m looking forward to it. Hope they won’t have a brocomplex. I’ll seriously punch my computer if that happens.

I hate that fans of Kimi to Boku are lumped into this category of crazy yaoi fangirls. Honestly, this show reminds me of what it’s like to be best friends with someone. You goof off, insult each other without any offense being taken, you look back on old times and laugh. Kimi to Boku is actually a very heartwarming and funny series, and believe it or not, most of the guys have a girl that they obviously are into. I cannot stand shows like K-On because it was just cute cute moe moe moe. Kimi to Boku has a Natsume like atmosphere, while managing to have way more comedy. Yes, I am a girl, but I don’t ship any of the guys together, they are just what best friends are like. I’m just as crazy with my best friends, so I like how relateable it is. Hell, my boyfriend watches it, who is straight lol, and it’s for the calming atmosphere and comedy, too. Okay, I’m done my little rant lol. This is just my take on the series, of course. I know plenty of watchers are just as you said. Idk about the Daily Lives of High School Boys animu, it looks like Kimi to Boku – take out the atmosphere and touching flashbacks and crushes – and add in waaaay more comedy. I watched the longer PV for it (7 mins I think?), seems rather funny, actually lol. Kay, shutting up! Sorry for my rambling. XD

And I know there are also fans of A-Channel who love it for largely the same reasons you like Kimi to Boku. I obviously don’t ‘get’ these kinds of series. Especially Kimi to Boku, when each character is an emotionless jerk who I find it hard to see how anyone could be friends with. But with fandom response, I’m just commenting on what my observations are. It was more the fandom I had a problem with than the anime themselves, as I was actually kinda positive about Daily Live of blah de blah

There will only be a trailer out by January 27th, actually, but the fact that Bandai is starting to openly promote merchandise with a couple of characters from the upcoming Code Geass does indicate it’s finally going to happen…and we’ll also see if it’s really an OVA or not. I’m expecting better things from Kazuki Akane than from Tetsuro Araki though.

It’s definitely an OVA, that’s for sure. And we know what it’s about (same world, set in Europe this time, while Lelouch is doing his rebellion shit off in Area 11). But it’s only a trailer? That kinda sucks. Wonder what on earth is taking them so long?

“Their works are limited to True Tears, Canaan, Angel Beats and Hanasaku Iroha. Asides from Canaan, which was a mess, all their works have been decently entertaining.”

Really? In the same line you praise Angel Beats and Hanasaku Iroha of all things you call Canaan a mess? It wasn’t a particularly good show, but at least it had *some* redeeming qualities. I’m also not exactly sure how you can say as much of the other two when you seem to hate Ano Hana. They’re pretty much all the same shit.

Of course I thoroughly enjoyed Blood-C and am incredibly hyped for the movie so we clearly just don’t see eye to eye.

Also ugh I didn’t realize Evol was Winter. Now I’ll have to suffer through the remainder of the first Aquarion.

Well, the general anime viewing public agrees with me, Canaan being scored waaaay lower than their other 3 series on MAL

Honestly, Canaan is the one I thought had the no redeeming features. Angel Beats had the goofy comedy and occasional great little one-episode story. Canaan had irritating characters and a total nonsense story, with the only good thing being the animation

Well, at least this season gives me a break to catch up on all the previous seasons I missed, because as far I as see, there is nothing worth watching. It’s so bad that I don’t even have my hope up for a surprise….
What happened to all the good series that desperately need a sequel?…*grumpy*

So far the only thing I’m excited for is Nise­monogatari. Rinne no Lagrange and Aquarion are follow ups, though I’m not to sure about them. Just looking at the promotional art for Aquarion is a turnoff, but the first half of the video was good. As for Lagrange, I’m not quite sure what to think of it. I’ll definitely check it out but I couldn’t discern much from the promo. Hopefully the characters will have some substance. Not so sure about Brave10. It looked alright at first, but the video was pretty bad IMO.

Can you believe that I of all people took this long in making a comment on a season preview that has manga adaptations?

SO, UHH, YOU MUST WATCH uhhhh something, uhh, the manga is sooo goood, I like the uhh characters in something uhhh….

Ok, so, maybe I haven’t read most of the mangas this time around, actually though, there is one….

The Knight in the Area

How many chapters did you read? I did not read too many chapters, but in my honest opinion, I think everyone should be forced to read the first 10 chapters. They can drop the manga right after that, but those first 10 chapters, especially chapters 6-10 are incredibly moving the first time you read them.

Wait wait wait, so am I the only person here who technically watches (and enjoys) every show every season? That can’t be. I see people talking about watching 0-5 shows. I rarely drop any show. And even then it’s only after 2-5 episodes.

Just this season I’m watching like 20+ shows, and this coming season most of them.

You are not alone in the over indulgence of anime… For at least the last 2 years, I have been in the 25-32 show per season bracket, so take comfort in the fact that there is at least one person out in the world who has less of a 3D life than you XD

BTW, I am a straight male and for the record, I enjoy Kimi to Boku. It’s got some solid humor, believable character relationships and the guys are not androgenous shoujo bishonen, so I don’t really understand why many anime fans don’t even want to give it a chance. It is a lot slower paced than what most younger anime fans are used to, so I will place the blame on ingrained expectation of instant gratification. >_<;;

Oh no good sir, you see, although I do enjoy everything, it doesn’t mean that I’m blind to their quality.
For example, I personally enjoy Moshiroiro Symphony, yet I wouldn’t recommend anybody to waste their time on it. Absurdly generic.
Just like I would recommend the first season of GunslingerGirl, but advise to steer clear of the second, (Teatrino), yet still I enjoyed both.

I’m like that too.
I think, rather than “enjoying everyithing”, a more appropriate description would be “enjoying ANY anime MORE than the lack of anime”. So while am aware that, for example, in the currently running season, Mirai Nikki and Mawaru Penguindrum are about ten times better than Guilty Crown, Bakuman, or BokuTomo, but at least even these latters are ANIME and I love anime so much, that, I get more enjoyment even from a bad anime, than I would from anything else I could do during that time.

I have a limit to how bad anime I’m still enjoying to watch, but it’s lower than the average.

I liked “Aquarion” – in fact I became friendly with FUNImations Brina Palencia because of her lead role on the dub. She said that’s the first time someone’s ever mentioned they liked her “Aquarion” performance – this was way back before she was: Rei “Evangelion” & Horo “Spice & Wolf” and Kurumu “Rosario + Vampire” – I knew she was gonna be a huge star…because of “Aquarion”. True Story.

It was one of the last dubs I watched before I got heavy into Subs. The music was pretty interesting. I thought it was an “Evangelion” rip off.

In answer to your “Original Shana clone” – Louise is actually the opposite of Shana – she sucks at Magic and is only good 1 thing – Void Magic. The guy Seito actually the fearless one who keeps saving her ass. “Zero” is also responsible for discovering Voice Actress Christina Vee (based on a Fan Dub) was chosen to be the paid voice in the English dub. Louise is 10 times the mega-bitch Shana is to her Male lead and eventually has sex with him in the Manga – Shana hasn’t even gotten to 2nd base with Yuji. There’s way more sex, service, and seduction in “Zero”. Aria – “Aria & the Scarlet Ammo” is a better comparison to Shana to the point that it’s a comfortable ‘Hybrid’ of Louise & Shana

i don’t get why your hating on guilty crown but it pissed me off how he gets to be a bigger pussy as the show goes on. and i haven’t seen anybody say anything good about Ben-to which is very funny and i enjoy it a lot but it doesn’t have much of a story. now i’m going to talk bad about Mirai Nikki. honestly i hate the main character and how hes such a pussy and doesn’t see how awesome Yuno is. shes the one of the only reasons i’m still watching it and about all this Shana stuff, i found the first season of it to be extremely boring and stopped watching at about episode 9 and i love zero because the girl literally beats him with a whip…i mean that’s funny. also, wheres the “Heaven’s Lost Property” movie? i hope it didn’t get held back and also scamp, this is the first time I’ve been on this site and seen one of your posts, but this is hilarious i loved the hate you gave some of these shows which i think is well needed criticism but next time can you get someone to write a preview to a sequel and they don’t even have to of liked that show, just someone that knows about it you know and is their a season almost if not all of these anime happen or have something to do with school?

Hey Scamp I think you missed like two shows one about some cat that’s airing on the children’s show in Japan that’s apparently seinen (called Poyo something) and the other is some no name show directed and animated by no one apparently (it started with Goku and ended somewhere with jyo)–

I agree with the fact that moe has become to powerful in influence and needs to be trimmed back a bit. A good show that has a moe moment or character is fine by me, but a show that has nothing else in it is a general waste of time.
Oddly I liked k-on far to much, yet every other show like this I can’t stand…

I’m hoping UFO table will impress, I love the animation style that has come to be expected of them.

I’m going to do what I do every season, download everything, watch the first 3-4 episodes of each, then drop the garbage. Looks like there will be lots of dropping going on for the next little while.
I’ll hold out as long as a can for Black Rock Shooter (I like the art direction), as well as Nisemonogatari.

[…] faintest idea that Aquarion was a thing until this sequel came up. And, just as Scamp said in his much more timely preview, it’s absolutely hilarious that they feel the need to create a 12,000 year distance between this […]

[…] bloggers these days have preview posts of some sort. I should at least point to Scamp’s well written one since I pretty much relied on it heavily when categorizing these shows. My comments in the above […]

[…] you should check out other previews you may find more helpful for informational content: THAT, The Cart Driver, Caraniel, Random C, and Sekijitsu (no Sea Slugs preview this season?) What I'll mostly be […]